The Visible Man: The Perilous Journey… Back to “The World” (Part VI)

“Men, you are the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would have never asked for you if you weren’t good. I have nothing but the best in my Army.?I don’t care what color you are, as long as you go up and kill those Kraut sonsabitches.?Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you.?Most of all, your race is looking forward to your success.?Don’t let them down, and damn you, don’t let me down!”

-???????General George Patton. Speech, given to the 761st Tank Battalion before the battle at Morville-les-Vic, 1944. (Abdul-Jabbar & Walton, 2004, p.87).

“The 761st gave a very good impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race.”

-???????General George Patton. Diary Entry, written the same afternoon he addressed the 761st Tank Battalion. (Abdul-Jabbar & Walton, 2004, p.87).

“The 761st Tank Battalion was in continuous combat from October 31, 1944, to May 6, 1945.?During that period, they captured or destroyed 331 machine gun nests, 58 pillboxes, and 461 wheeled vehicles.?In addition, they killed 6,246 enemy soldiers and captured 15,818 prisoners. They liberated thirty towns, and villages and two branch concertation camps.?The tank battalion suffered a casualty rate of 50%.”

-???????Dr. Micheal Kane, Clinical Traumatologist “A Review Study of the Clinical Implications for Working with African American Veterans.” Doctoral Dissertation, Argosy University-Seattle, 2005.

My Dear Readers,

It’s a quiet Monday morning 4:45 am on June 5th. I am sitting in my dining room, sipping my Starbucks coffee, watching the sun rise over the beautiful Cascade Mountains. In the quietness, I am listening to the birds chirping, the wind rustling through the trees, and the distinct sounds of bells ringing from the light rail system as it slinks along MLK Way taking barely awake, yawning commuters to work in downtown Seattle and beyond.?Perhaps, you are among those fortunate enough to be awake at this wonderful hour and to begin what will no doubt be a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest.

Now as I sit here, it is time to bring closure to my epic trip of 10,000 miles beginning in Eastern Europe visiting the countries of Croatia, Slovenia, drifting along the Adriatic Sea and finally concluding with a visit to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the home of Anne Frank. As this epic journey ends, so does my six-segment series entitled “The Perilous Journey”. In this series, I have sought to compare, contrast, conceptualized and lastly, comment on the classic work of James Baldwin’s essay The Fire Next Time.

My intent was to compare the life of the Negro in 1963 to that of the African American in 2023 and in doing so, sharing some of my own personal experiences of my 70 years of life living as a black man in America with both eras providing the similar experience of psychological trauma due to racial oppression and discriminatory treatment.

The Importance of Anne Frank… Allyship through Survivorship

There will always be a bond between European Jews and African Americans. The struggle to survive annihilation, being terrorized, laws and codes regulating movements, occupations, schooling of children, being a refugee without safety…always living out of fear of expulsion and rejection due to fear of … white supremacy will be one that cements our histories together.?

It is well known that Hitler’s Nuremburg Laws on Race was modeled after American Jim Crow laws. One bond that will forever bond these two communities together is the role in which Black soldiers of the 761st Tank Battalion liberated two branch concertation camps during WWII. One such camp was the Gunskirchen camp in Austria where they freed Hungarian Jews. In discovering, “…some 15,000 Hungarian Jews near death from starvation, horrified the tankers did everything they could to help but could not stay long before being ordered to move on, reflecting as they departed on the limits of human cruelty”.

Trapped in a History that They do not Understand

In writing to his nephew, James Baldwin passionately stated,

“Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear.”?

Baldwin goes on to state:

“The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope.?They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.?They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons that black men are inferior to white men.”

Behold, One’s Lying Eyes…Acceptance with Love

Can I believe my lying eyes? Did Baldwin just state the following:

·???????You must accept them…and accept them with love.?WTF?

·???????They are … still trapped in history which they do not understand.

·???????They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men.”

And yet they continue to believe regardless of historical evidence, that Black men are inferior to White men and in doing so, seek the elimination of Critical Race Theory (CRT) which only serves to keep them trapped in “history that they do not understand”.

And how do White people maintain the status, as Baldwin states, as “innocent people [who] have no other hope”? They shut off their minds due to what Baldwin calls “the loss of their identity”.

An example of the conflict is that of the statements of General George S. Patton. He delivered a passionate supportive speech to Black soldiers under his command, stating “I would have never asked for you if you weren’t good…. Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you.” Yet in that very same afternoon, writing in his diary, “The 761st gave a very good impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race.”?So, despite of the “very good impression” made by the black soldiers, Patton remained in what Baldwin states, “trapped in history” and the belief that Black men are inferior to White men.

This belief carries over well into the 21st Century and is reinforced in the constant replaying of the movie Patton (1970) especially during holidays celebrating America’s military achievements of WWII.?The information in Patton’s diary was well known when the film Patton (1970) was developed and never included in the scene of the speech to the 761st Tank Battalion or for that matter there were no scenes of Black soldiers in the film.?In doing so, the achievements of the Black soldiers went without notice adding to psychological distress of not being what Baldwin calls “the storms which rages …about the reality of acceptance and integration.”

Your brothers… Your Lost, Younger Brothers (1963)

In writing to his nephew, Baldwin states:

?“These men are your brothers—your lost, younger brothers.?And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.”

Essentially, Baldwin in 1963 saw the realities of man that the White man was the younger brother of the Black man, and it was the role of the Black man, with love, to “force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it”.

My Brothers… My Lost, Younger Brothers (2023)

Sixty years later, Baldwin’s words of “force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it” … Has this been achieved??Absolutely not. African Americans today, in 2023, remain no different from Negroes of 1963.?

We are not monolithic, meaning we are not of one single mind. There remain those who continue to seek acceptance and integration as well as those who do not.

However, what has remained consistent over the last 60 years is the Black man’s continual quest to “force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.”?This of course is being met with hardcore resistance in the form of formal laws against educating Whites about truths associated with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and limit what can be taught to Black and Brown children about the significance of their own history.

Bringing Closure to The Fire Next Time

Baldwin, in his closing words to his nephew, stated “it was intended that you should perish in the ghetto, perish by never being allowed to go behind the white man’s definitions, by never being allowed to spell your proper name. You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention and, by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality.”

The Permanency of Psychological Trauma: The Lifetime Wound That Never Truly Heals

At the time of Baldwin’s writing in 1963, the discussion of traumatic impacts within the Black experience were treated as “family secrets” and were left basically unheard and untreated leading to dire and devastating consequences.?In the present day, although suspicion and reservations remain towards the healthcare system and its Eurocentric model, there is more willingness to understand and engage in mental health treatment.

It is not unusual for the Eurocentrically trained mental health therapist to respond affirmatively when questioned whether someone suffering from trauma can be healed.?However, such a response today is misguided and mismatched as historically, the therapist was trained to view trauma as a single distressing or disturbing experience not a conglomeration of experiences.

Today in marginalized communities where traumatic impacts can occur repetitively and can strike in combination with other subtypes at the psychological core of an individual or community. An example of such psychological impacts is those being experienced by the family and the community of Richland County, SC in which Cyrus Carmack-Benton, a 14-year Black boy was shot in the back and killed as he ran away from a convivence store, the allegation being he had stolen a bottle of water.

The sheriff’s office’s incident report states, “the shooting was not a bias motivated incident”.?Consequently, it is perceivable that members of this community could be impacted by one or a combination of all the following identified psychological traumas:

·???????Intergenerational Trauma; Historical Trauma

·???????Insidious Trauma; Trauma of Racial Profiling

·???????The Impostor Syndrome; The Stereotypical Threat Trauma

·???????Betrayal Trauma; Racial Trauma

·???????Micro-Aggression Assault; Macro-Aggression

·???????Just World Trauma; The Invisibility Syndrome

·???????Complex Posttraumatic Stress; Isolation Trauma

Concluding Words- Dr. Kane … Back to the World

In starting this six segment blog series during my 10,000-mile journey, my intent was to compare the life of the Negro in 1963 to that of the African American in 2023… what have I learned? I learned that Black people are committed to echoing Baldwin’s words of forcing “our white brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.”

However, as stated earlier, Black people are not monolithic, meaning we are not of the same stone. Where some seek change, others seek transformation. I view change as temporary and self-serving, but I for one, am committed to transformation which has permanency with the focus on moving forward. Has transformation occurred? No. This country is far from achieving transformation and will not achieve it because as Baldwin clearly stated:

“They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons that black men are inferior to white men”.

As I was returning from my trip, I learned some more sorrowful and troublesome information.?On May 28, 2023, a 16-year-old Black teen was shot in the back by a former cop who was white, for dating his daughter.

Baldwin states:

“You must accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope.”?

I suggest the following quote:

“The stupid neither forgives nor forget; the na?ve forgive and forget; the wise forgives but do not forget. Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself. Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow up beyond what you were.?To err is human; to forgive, infrequently.”

Back To the World - Curtis Mayfield

In these city streets everywhere

You gotta be careful where you move your feet

How you part your hair

Do you really think that God could ever forgive this life we live?

Back in the world

Back in the world

Had a long stretch of sacrifice

Gettin' back home will be awful nice

Child, your woman has long been gone

The doggone war just lasted too long

People don't give a damn

People don't give a damn

People don't give a damn

So I'm standin' here in future shock

It can give the mind an awful knock

Talkin' 'bout hard times, hard times, hard times

Back in the world

Oh-oh-oh

My, my, my, my, my, my

It's so hard, it's so hard

This life is so hard

I been beaten up and robbed

Soldier boy ain't got no job

Back in the world

?

Well, evening has arrived, and my mission of blog writing is completed! Good night, safe travels, calmness, in walking your landscapes. I bid you peace and emotional wellness.

Dr. Kane

“Living the life I want and letting go of the life I lived.”

Until We Meet Again… I am the Visible Man